BetUS World Cup 2010 Debate: Who are the Top 10 Forwards?

Lionel “The Magician” Messi ranks amongst fans and neutrals alike as the greatest footballer of this generation. But is he really the greatest?

Might Fernando Torres with his organically gifted feet, tremendous technique, exciting pace and eye-catching finishes, give Messi a good run for his money. His following in worldwide soccer communities is not too shabby, I dare say.

For that matter, what about his partner in crime on the Spanish bench, David Villa that is admired for his predatory skills. Goals simply ooze out of his every pore. The Torres-Villa tandem led Spain to the Euro Cup in 2008.

What about Wayne Rooney, the aggressive English forward that charges like a bull on the pitch and is perhaps one of the most problematic forwards to any defensive backline. Where does he rank in your esteem?

When talking about forwards one has to consider Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto in the discussion, especially as these two African nationals will be representing Ivory Coast and Cameroon in the world’s first-ever World Cup on African soil. How will this historic moment influence their game? When it comes to verve and swagger these two have it in abundance – on and off the pitch some might say.

Frenchman, Thierry Henry. Does he deserve a place in this discussion or is he past his sell-by-date at 32-years-old. He no longer has the pace he had in his youth but his technical skills are still intact.

Luis Fabiano of Brazil? Carlos Tevez of Argentina? Robin Van Persie of the Netherlands? Are they top ten choices?

The question of who is the greatest forward is open to debate, at times, heated debate as soccer fans are torn by national loyalties or blatant favouritism.

It would be spiritually gratifying and comforting to our analytical fibre to have the question neatly answered – a theorem elegant in its simplicity that would afford us a rational basis for what can only be conjecture.

Something akin to an all-encompassing, scientific explanation, seeking from the natural fabric of soccer reality an altogether complete mathematical summation of the forces that be, with which we can concisely frame one player with the sentiment – the greatest forward.

Yet, we can only hope to capture accurately such a sentiment. It is not an exacting, dispassionate science, but an approximation riddled by our own emotional understanding of the matter and allegiances.

Whoever is your choice forward – whether it is Lionel Messi, Fernando Torres, Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba or another – there is one thing we can all agree upon and that is the world’s biggest sporting event, and the world’s biggest online betting event, cannot come soon enough.

To help the time idle away seamlessly, we are putting together our list of top ten forwards. You can agree or disagree with our selections, naturally; they are in no way meant to be a representation in totality.